Steve Carell Breaks Dances During Commencement Speech at Northwestern

Steve Carell turned his commencement speak into a dance party, even getting the graduating students involved.

The “Four Seasons” star delivered the commencement address at Northwestern University on June 16, where at one point he broke into dance when “That’s Not My Name” by The Ting Tings played.

In video shared by the university on Facebook, Carell was seen busting out moves on the stage with School of Communication Dean E. Patrick Johnson, before making his way down to the newly-minted grads.

“Turned the United Center into Cafe Disco,” the official Northwestern University Instagram also captioned their post. “Thank you to Steve Carell for his #NU2025 Commencement address—complete with a mid-speech dance break!”

Carell, according to Northwestern, centered his speech on kindness.

“Kindness isn’t a weakness. It is a very potent strength,” he said, later adding, “I embody a base line human decency, which, I believe, should not be celebrated, but expected. Everyone should be at very least, ‘pretty nice.’”

Carell received an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts from Northwestern. While he did not go to Northwestern himself, he touched on learning improv from the school’s summer high school theater program.

“I was a ‘Cherub’ in the Northwestern Summer High School Institute for Theatre, and it was there that I was first introduced to improvisation, when several Northwestern students gave us a master class. That inspired me to later move to Chicago and to pursue a career at The Second City,” he said, adding, “An improv scene goes nowhere unless everyone listens to one another. The best way to see and understand another human being is to listen to them. To listen is to show respect.”

He also has ties to Northwestern because of his children. His daughter Annie is a member of the class of 2023, while son Johnny is class of 2026.